


No Place Like Purgatory

by oceankat8



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, It's really mostly Gabriel, Purgatory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-27 23:18:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2710322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceankat8/pseuds/oceankat8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel was bored out of his mind.. He supposed that's what happened when you were dead. You got bored. Though if he'd known exactly how boring he would've tried a hell of a lot harder to not get himself killed in the first place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Place Like Purgatory

Gabriel was bored out of his mind.. He supposed that's what happened when you were dead. You got bored. Though if he'd known exactly how boring he would've tried a hell of a lot harder to not get himself killed in the first place. That was his biggest mistake.

Stupid Winchesters with their morals and their "Fight back"s and their "It's only right"s. He was never trying self sacrifice ever again.

Gabriel had, in a way, ceased to exist. At least, that's the closest way to really describe it. He was currently nothing but a series of his own thoughts and emotions that identified as Gabriel, floating in nothing. Surrounded by nothing. It was boring.

At least, until it wasn't.

\---

Gabriel's first thoughts roughly resembled a line from every cheesy black and white horror film he'd had the pleasure of watching in his existence;

"I'm Alive!"

His second thought however was more along the lines of "No, wait, shit.... Not alive"

The not-alive archangel looked around. "Purgatory? Really? Hell I can get out of, Heaven... I'm at least accustomed to, but Purgatory? This place has leviathans"

He sighed. At least it wasn't boring.

\---

He was right. Purgatory was not boring. In fact, Gabriel once mused, an adrenaline junkie like Dean who just loves nothing more than chopping heads would probably feel right at home here.

Gabriel didn't need to sleep. That was good because otherwise he really wouldn't be _able_ to. He'd constantly be doing the one eye open everything here wants to kill you thing while he slept and that just wasn't comfortable. And he seemed to have kept at least the basics of his grace.

He could feel it's hum inside him, warm, but weak. He couldn't conjure anything, but hey, it's the little mercies like not needing to eat, or sleep, or etc that _really_ matter.

\---

He wasn't alone. It didn't take him long to figure it out either. There were other angels. Angels he didn't expect. He could feel their grace, faintly, so he went out to find them. Anna was there, Balthazar, a couple others that, like them, weren't exactly great at taking orders.

But hey,if purgatory was the reward for being a total fuck-up, at least he wasn't bored.

It was easier with more of them. They still had to keep moving, but they could rest, replenish, take turns. They could even groom each other's wings, and _that_ was definitely something Gabriel had missed.

\---

Castiel was there. It almost broke Gabriel's heart, but he could feel the pulse of his corrupted grace, the mantra only Cassy would have echoing with it: Dean...Dean...Dean...

The others couldn't feel him. Balthazar just laughed when Gabriel told him the kid was dead. Weirdo.

But the really weird thing was, the closer they tried to get to him and the harder they worked at finding him, the further away he was.

Anna came to him one day.

"You can feel him, his grace?"

"Well yeah, of course I can"

"Can you feel mine?"

That was when Gabriel realized. The others could not feel Castiel's grace, the couldn't feel their own grace, and by extension, they could not feel Gabriel's grace. They were cut off from their own warmth.

That night he built a fire.

The angels huddled around it.

\---

They made themselves into a tribe. They stayed together, they didn't leave anyone behind. If some stupid monster felt like attacking, they took care of it. If Gabriel sensed Leviathan, they fled.

When new angels appeared, they took care of them. They were a meager group, and they were all misfits. Heaven's rejects. Every one of them had a story where heaven's rules didn't come first.

So they stayed together, the meager tribe of misfit angels, closer than ever before, more like the siblings they were always meant to be.

\---

Castiel disappeared. One day Gabriel could feel his grace, pulsing, calling out, the next.... Nothing.

He told the others, this time, Balthazar wept.

\---

They mourned his loss, Gabriel, Balthazar, Anna, and the others.

They did not know what happened to their young brother. The nearest Gabriel could imagine was that maybe the kid had been caught alone by a leviathan and sent into the nothingness Gabriel remembered from before.

But the Angels moved on, continued their own existence, after death, together.

\---

It's been some time. Gabriel's collection of misfit angels has grown, if only slightly. They're happy, content. Many of them are even happier than they were before. No longer ruled under heaven's thumb, forced to do what is commanded of them. Even trapped in the horrid dimension, they feel free.

Here they don't have to be the mindless soldier. Here they can be themselves, brothers and sisters in a family. They accept each other as they are and don't worry about being cast out or reprogrammed. Here they flourish.

Gabriel smiles, Here ain't so bad.

\---

A new angel appeared again. Young, innocent, scared to death. And of all the things to die wearing...

"Hey Kid!" Gabriel called down to him, smiling, "Welcome home"


End file.
